Branded  Chapter 1  Rough
by Keanna Black
Summary: This is a rough version of my first chapter of the fanfic series I am doing about the house of night series :


**Branded**

**Chapter 1**

I sat down restlessly in my English classroom. My best friend for life, Shala, who was chatting away about something that I didn't even care about was sitting on my right, also Kasia was on the other side of me and she was staring off into the distance, so I couldn't even pretend to be talking to her.

"No seriously Layla, it is the best shop ever! Are you even listening to me?" Shala asked me, poking me on the arm.

"Oh, huh? Yeah of course…" I frowned rubbing my arm where she had (painfully) poked it.

"Then what did I just say?" Shala narrowed her eyes, testing me.

"Something about shopping?" I raised my eyebrow at the unconvinced expression on her face. "Look, you know I don't like anything to do with shopping, so stop staring at me like I have two heads… Which of course I don't, but that's beside the point… Oh look you've got me babbling on about god knows what now. I'm starting to act like you… This is not a good thing." I was out of breath by the time I finished my desperate little rant.

The rant hadn't seemed to have any affect on the way Shala was staring at me, and she was really starting to tick me off.

"Why are you staring at me?" I finally asked after trying to look away from to see if she would turn away, which she didn't.

"Nothing, you just dissed shopping… Which in my books means you don't have sense?" Shala made the last part of her lecture a question, so I just blinked and replied with a cold voice.

"I do have sense, I will never go and spend my life's money on clothes that I'll never wear like you do." I looked away from her shocked look and turned to Kasia. "Are you gonna stop gawking at thin air?" I asked, smiling a tiny bit as Kasia snapped out of her weird trance.

"Yeah, sorry." Kasia smiled back at me. _I could hug her._

"So what were you thinking of anyway?" I pondered on it while she tried to remember what she was thinking about, or rather what she was going to tell me and what she wasn't going to tell me.

There was this really cute guy in our year, so she might have been thinking about him, but then again, Kasia wasn't the kind of person to daydream about guys. This is one of the kinds of people you need in your friendship group so they can tell you that it's not a big deal when you lose your boyfriend or whatnot (Whatnot being your sense).

"I was just thinking about how it would be so awesome if I moved to the UK or somewhere that's not so sunny." Kasia finally said.

"Oh, the UK is boring, trust me. I was born there." I said simply. Well I was born there and I did live there for the first seven years of my life. _I wonder if it's any better now that it's nine years since I was living there._ I thought, pondering on whether I should plan a trip to the UK to see if it wasn't crappy anymore. (Oh great now I WANT to go back to the UK, what is wrong with me?)

"Well that is your opinion; I might think its fun." Kasia mumbled. "What's with Shala being so quiet? It's not like her."

"Um, that's because I dissed shopping… But seriously shopping is so not my thing." I told Kasia, just as our English teacher twitched into the room, yes, I said twitched, seriously, it gets annoying when she does that all the time.

"Good morning class!" She said in her way too exuberant attitude. Seriously, you'd need therapy after having even one class with this woman.

"Good morning, Mrs. Madden." We all replied, sounding like we hadn't been to bed in like years, which is true for some people in this room. I stared around, not listening to Mrs Madface (yes I call her that…) lecture about the new coursework assignment that we were supposedly going to start today. Of course no one would bother to do it until the last minute, which Mrs Madface seemed to know because now she was saying that if they start it today she might bring in sweets for us the next English class. _Oh yay sweets! Cause sweets make everything better… Yeah right._

"Layla, would you stop daydreaming and pay attention!" Mrs. Madden called to me, (gosh, did she always have her eyes on me? And what about Kasia? She's daydreaming too).

It was round about there that I began coughing, _Oh gosh, now after all I've been through that day, getting yelled at by my maths teacher to give an example, I've got a terrible cough now? How… Fun._

"Sorry Mrs. Madden..." I said after a coughing fit or two.

"Are you okay Layla? Do you wanna go to the matron to get coughing medicine?" Mrs. Madden asked, looking concerned now rather than that idiotic annoyed look she normally wore when looking at me, in particular.

"Yeah, okay." I replied, coughing again.

"Okay. Shala will you take her to Matron?" Mrs. Madden said it like a question but it sounded more of an order, which wasn't surprising, to me anyway.

"Yeah, of course I will." Shala looked concerned too, _what the heck? Do I look pale or something?_ Shala got up and practically lead me out of the room, _gosh does she think I'm gonna fall over? _But then again I did feel a bit dizzy.

And that's when it happened, this guy, who had some seriously weird tattoos appeared in front of me and Shala. Shala screamed, noticing what he was before I did, she hid behind me and whispered in my ear "That's a vampire! A _tracker_ to be precise." She sounded scared, why wouldn't she be? But the problem was I wasn't scared, it had just dawned on my why I was coughing.

"Layla Brady! You have been chosen to join us at the house of Night!" The tracker said, pointing a finger at me. I felt my head explode in a headache and had to lean on Shala so I wouldn't fall over.

"God no!" Shala screamed again, moving away so I completely feel over. "You turned my BFFL into a freak! Turn her back! Turn her back!" She yelled at thin air, the tracker had already disappeared.

"HEY! Mrs. Madden sent me down to find out what was tak- OHMYGOODNESS!" Kasia clasped her hand over her mouth to stifle a squeal of delight. "Layla's gonna finally get out of this place!" Kasia didn't bother to hide the next squeal that came out of her mouth.

"Seriously guys, stop freaking out… I'm fine." I muttered, getting up, and then I was hit with another coughing fit.

"If we don't get you to the house of night, you are gonna cough yourself to death, Layla!" Shala moaned, looking slightly pale. _Well at least she's not abandoning me._ No seriously, the last girl to get marked from this school, had been completely abandoned, okay if you don't include her insane ex-boyfriend, or were they together again? Ah well, who cares.

"Okay, so I'll go to the house of night. My mother is going to kill me…" I muttered walking to the exit. The bell rang for end of class and people starting pouring out of their classes. Then they stopped, gawking at me. Oh great I have an audience as I shamefully walk out of school. Just brilliant.

Kasia didn't like the audience, she kept glaring at them, and Shala obviously wanted to disappear into the crowds, she was still freaked, but was still following me, like the somewhat good friend she was, even though she was obsessed with shopping. Seriously why was she my friend again? Oh yeah, because our parents were so close.

"Stop looking at her! She's not Zoey." Kasia frowned at some people. Luckily, unlike Zoey, I don't have a boyfriend, which did bug me before but now it's nice to not have to break up with someone over a mark on your head. It's like I was branded the new weirdo that the people of faith would have to take down, God I wish I didn't know Zoey's step-loser of a step-dad. He's gonna freak, just like he freaked when Zoey got marked. Though I didn't know Zoey quite as much as I wish I did, I really didn't need to worry anymore, after all I _was_ going to the same school as her now.

I got into the car park, finally away from the masses of gawking idiots; seriously they were staring at me like I had magically had two heads. Talk about invading your personal bubble. I found my black convertible, okay yes; I'm sort of rich, and climbed in. Of course Kasia and Shala climbed in too. _I could hug them both_.

"Thanks guys… For not ditching me…" I smiled at both of them. Bet I looked goofy with a mark and a grin on my face. Kasia and Shala just smiled back.

"I'd never dessert you, Layla, no matter how freaked I get." Shala told me.

"I'm glad you are marked, but… does this mean we'll never see you again?" Kasia asked.

"I don't know, Kazzie. I don't know…"I told her the truth, I really didn't know if I'd ever get the chance to see my two BFFL's again. I then started the car and drove of, heading home first, still coughing my life away.

When I got home I parked the car in my double driveway, seriously I'm _sort_ of rich, my parents were the really rich ones. I clambered out and walked up to my… Mansion. There said it. Happy now? Kasia and Shala stayed in the car, were they gonna stick with me all the way to the House of Night? I really did hope so.

I walked silently into the massive hall after unlocking the "grand" front doors and made my way unbelievably quietly, considering that I felt like coughing my lungs up.

"Mum? Dad?" I called, hearing soft talking, and then I noticed that there were three people talking. John Heffer was here. Oh great. I hear walking and the opening of a door and my very pretty mother stuck her head and then almost yelped in surprised as she noticed the, what seemed to be, very interesting mark on my head. Yep, just great.

"What's going on?" I heard John say from inside, I felt my stomach clench as he walked up beside my mother.

"My God!" John almost sounded like he was out of breath.

"Hey, it's not my fault." I tried to say it with nonchalance but it came out as a whisper. I then went into another coughing fit, forcing me to bend over.

"We have to get her to the house of night!" I heard my dad say, okay so I hadn't noticed that he'd appeared too, curious of what was going on, but I looked up at him, finally someone who understood.

"No, she can't go there." John sneered.

"Yes I can, you didn't stop Zoey and you're not going to stop me. So excuse me while I go get my stuff." I sneered back and stomped up the stairs, ignoring Jon's yelling, gosh, did he want to be my dad or something? I shuddered at the thought.

I came back downstairs about ten minutes later, dragging a suitcase full of my clothes; I knew that my furniture would be brought there by other people.

"Okay, so who's bringing me before I drop dead in front of you all?" I asked, blinking around, I didn't mean to joke about me dying but that's just the way I am.

"I will, your mother is yelling at John, saying stuff like "You're not her father!" Which is true, he isn't, he has no control over you my pet." My dad smiled, holding his car keys. _Gosh I could hug him_

"Thank you dad! You're the best." Oh great I'm turning into a daddy's girl.

"You're welcome, pet." Dad smiled and opened the front door and walked over to his BMW and climbed in. I Clambered into the passenger seat and nearly coughed a lung up, my head was searing with pain and I felt like I was going to faint. I seriously needed to get to the House of Night or I wouldn't last much longer. I saw my mum kicking John out of the house as I left my life as I knew it behind me. Oh great… A new life. Just what I need. Looking on the bright side at least I didn't have to hand in my Chemistry coursework…


End file.
